Sonic the Hedgehog: The Price of Freedom
by Hawki
Summary: SatAM Oneshot: It was once said that the price of freedom was eternal vigilance, and for much of the Freedom Fighters' war against Robotnik, that was arguably true. But in a world free of the dictator, the price of freedom for Sonic was eternal boredom.


.

**The Price of Freedom**

It wasn't that warm today.

Granted, that was pretty much par for the course in a forest. The sun shone, the trees filtered the light and heat, and the result was a pleasant temperature. And yet, Sonic felt…cool, and not in terms of personality. Usually, he'd be running right about now. Usually, he'd be halfway to Robotropolis in preparation for a night mission. Usually, the thought of being cold in the middle of spring would have seemed ridiculous, since it was so easy for him to warm up. But what was usual nowadays…well, it was a different usual. A cooler usual, both in terms of temperature and the conditions of Knothole's citizens. A usual that he wasn't 'cool' with at all.

"Hello Sonic."

"Lovely day."

"How's Muttski? Have you gotten him out of Robotropolis yet?"

"Hey, can you teach me how to use power rings? I mean, it's not as if you need them anymore."

"Can you babysit for me?"

Usual…Mr. Beck, Mr. Call, and Mr. At had slithered his way out from between the two of them. Here he was…once the kind of person where he was asked something, half the time it would be whether he could take out a factory of Robotnik, or whether he could keep an eye out for a loved one who'd been roboticized at best, or dead at worst (or the other way round, depending on how one viewed the process). Nowadays, with Robotnik defeated, he'd been reduced to Mr. Ordinary Citizen that could be Beck or Call. Even Snively and Ixis Naugus had felt like anti-climax, and now he was living out the rest of the story of his life in a case of sequel syndrome.

Interesting times, some people called it. Idly kicking a rock into the power ring grotto, Sonic had another word for them. _Boring_.

_Ninety minutes…_the hedgehog reflected, glancing at his watch. The amount of time it would take for another power ring to be generated, one that would be used for electricity generation rather than giving him a boost of speed. It stunk worse than Robotropolis, all this waiting, of being reduced to guard duty. It wasn't as if there was important work to be done, of the joint tasks of turning Knothole into a permanent settlement, or snatching up the remaining robians for returning their free will at possible de-robotization. But these were tasks that all the other Freedom Fighters had covered. Rotor and Bunny for construction, Chuck for the robian issue, Sally being the brains of it all…and what of the rest of them? Antoine had always been useless, so no biggie there. Dulcy was with her own kind now, and Tails was back at school.

Sonic had often joked that if there was one upside to Robotnik taking over, it was that his 'brother' would never have to attend the 'horrors' of the first grade. Right now though, he envied him. He thought he knew everything once, but it was becoming clear that what he knew mainly pertained to dealing with dictators and robots. How to prime an explosive? Check. Evading SWATbots? Check. Everything from science to literature, from history to art? Checkmate.

Sonic kicked another rock into the grotto. _Checkmate? More like being a bloody pawn. _Another rock went in. _Knights…rooks…bishops…castles…another rock…_

"Keep kicking in rocks Sonic, I'm sure the ring will come up faster that way."

Sonic didn't bother glancing at his visitor…if Sally was indeed visiting him, and not just passing by or joining in on the bitter joke that Mobius had played on him. He wasn't in the mood for company right now…not with her, at any rate. It was as if their lives had gone in separate directions ever since Robotnik had been defeated. And right now, he was content for it to stay that way.

"Eighty-five minutes," the chipmunk murmured. "Got a book or anything?"

"A book" the hedgehog asked. "Oh, sure. Books…all about books, isn't it now?"

"Sonic?"

"Let's see…_A Guide to the Kingdom's History…Geological Strata of the Great Desert…The Arts and Crafts of the Mangarans…_"

"They're all textbooks Sonic, I meant fiction."

"Oh sure. Fiction," the rodent said bitterly, deciding to skim a rock over the grotto this time. "Stay with fiction, and all that. Not as if I'm smart enough to learn things aside from dealing with _SWATbutts…_

Crap…even "SWATbutts" seemed juvenile right now. Sally, Antoine, Rotor…they'd often made jabs at his intelligence, but they'd been nothing but jabs, and Sonic had been perfectly comfortable knowing that while Sally provided the plans and Rotor the tools, he was the one who was first choice for executing them. Now though…he felt stupid. Ignorant. And no-one even had to point it out.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Sonic asked eventually, still not meeting his former friend's now perplexed gaze. "Don't you have a meeting with the council?"

"This is a recess," Sally said. "One hour." She let out a sad chuckle. "All I get these days."

"Ah yes, free time. It's _so _fleeting right now."

Again, a lesson Sonic had learned over the last few years, that there _was _such a thing as having too much free time on your hands. Not that Sally would know it of course, being busy from everything from building plans to the issue of whether she'd become queen, or simply share responsibilities with her fellow citizens. In the past, no-one in Knothole had objected to the notion of a teenage princess ruling over them, but now, without an outside threat, there were cries ranging from crowning her as queen, to scrapping the monarchy entirely. It had failed against Robotnik, made up for it by defeating him and now, it was time for something different.

Kind of a macrocosm for how Sonic felt really.

"Eighty-three minutes," Sally murmured. She let out a sigh. "You know, you can change shifts if you want."

"Oh no. I've got a job to do."

"A job that has you sitting here for hours on end, day in and day out?" Sally sat down beside him, even if Sonic's gaze extended out to the water. "Sonic, despite what some people say, I'm not a dictator. I don't expect you to simply waste your life and-…"

"Oh please," Sonic snarled, with enough sarcasm to make even his oldest friend recoil. "Waste my life…that's what I've been doing for the past three years."

"Sonic?"

"Chuck doesn't need me. Rotor doesn't need me. Tails grew out of bedtime stories years ago, and he's now involved in stuff that I don't even understand!" He threw another stone in. "I'm like the bloody stones, Sally. Sinking in deeper and deeper, to the point where I don't care anymore."

"…I don't think rocks have feelings."

"Oh no, of course not. They're either sedimentary, metamorphic, or…or…"

"Igneous?"

Sonic went to throw another rock in…then stopped. He was sick of the game. He was sick of rocks. He was sick of everything.

"Fifty minutes…" Sally said eventually.

"Huh? I thought-…"

"No…that's when I have to be back at the town hall…hut…thing." Sally sighed. "Don't even know what to call it anymore."

"Call it the shack," Sonic murmured. "It's what some people are calling it."

"And you?"

"I'm past caring."

"No…you're not. Otherwise you wouldn't be throwing rocks in some vain attempt to placate yourself.

An uneasy silence developed between the two of them, broken only by the sound of the wind on the grotto, and that of birds, the population of which had blossomed over the last few years. It was funny, Sonic reflected, that Sally had so far managed to avoid the cliché question of whether he was alright. Was it that she didn't care? Or that she already knew what the answer would be? That she knew what it would be, because it would be the same answer that she would give if he asked her?

"It's funny, isn't it?" Sonic asked eventually.

"What is?"

"This…all of it." The hedgehog sighed. "When we talked about defeating Robotnik…about what life would be like after it…that you'd have your father back, I'd have my uncle…"

"But instead you're bored out of your mind, while my mind seems ready to explode half the time," Sally murmured. "The price of freedom…"

"Is discontent," Sonic said. "Vigilance went out the window years ago."

Sally sighed and looked at her watch. "Forty-eight minutes."

"You that meticulous usually?"


End file.
